"Scripture engagement must allow the young person to ‘discover’ the message for themselves (as opposed to ‘being told’). They need to discover the relevance and value of God’s story for their lives, and our role is to be a guide, a storyteller, an encourager, and a listener to the Holy Spirits guidance."

Seeking to engage a young person with Scripture can be disappointing – and exhilarating. Have I failed if they don’t connect or react negatively? Having an array of engagement tools at our disposal, combined with an informed awareness of the context and culture of youth will enable us to use the right resource at the right time.

This approach is being used by Scripture Union in Victoria in a schools-based context, and by Bible Society in South Australia in a youth group and schools context. [more...]

The WordSpace broadcasts short Bible-centred messages to thousands of young people every day, via BBM, WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Mxit, Google+ and email.

"theWordSpace is a way to help you encounter God in the spaces of each busy day. We have a really cool team of writers who know what it’s like to be a young person trying to figure out life with God. Our posts take less than 45 seconds to read. Besides being short, we write them to be as real, relevant and Biblical as we can."

The messages, delivered every morning, are written in a variety of styles and include links to Bible passages. Members of a youth group can be encouraged to subscribe to the WordSpace, so that they are all reading the same daily messages, stimulating discussion via social media and when they meet together.

The WordSpace comes from The Youth Hub in South Africa, partnering with Scripture Union. The technical infrastructure used to send out the daily messages could be used in other contexts around the world. Contact Andrew Vaughan if you would like to know more. [more...]

A Bible Engagement Tool designed to assist people to grasp the big picture of Scripture; the story of the King and His Kingdom, and their place in it!

Author: Clayton Fergie (Scripture Union International)

"The pattern of a fundamentally fragmented and disconnected understanding of Scripture still remains a major issue for those within Christendom, in both the majority and minority world."

Timelining Scripture is an innovative, yet simple Bible engagement tool that helps people to grasp Scripture as the single great coherent story of God’s purposes for the world. It reinforces a strong notion of the Kingdom of God and is particularly useful for helping people to find themselves, their community and their cultural context as actors within the biblical story. It is adaptable across age and cultural contexts and is highly visual, interactive and flexible. [more...]

Abstract:
This dissertation contributes to the missiological conversation on transformational Scripture engagement. Translation into the mother–tongue and good distribution by themselves are insufficient to enable multi–lingual Budu believers of Congo–Kinshasa translate the Bible into action and changed lives. Literature surveyed on Scripture engagement, biblical theology of mission and contextualization revealed that effectiveness seems to be handicapped by the lack of connecting and integrating the people’s story in its wider historical context into God’s story, as presented in the totality of Scripture and understood through relevant themes and motifs. In light of a history of a largely non–contextualized gospel, the model of biblical theology in context including creative solutions to language in a multilingual environment could offer a way forward.

This qualitative research identifies and documents Scripture resources that enable life–transforming Scripture engagement among Budu believers from their point of view. It further identifies measurable indicators that determine what constitutes verifiably effective engagement. The research methodology consisted of qualitative methods to collect and grounded theory to analyze the data from 36 interviews and 36 focus groups, participant observation and document research, representing the whole of the Budu region and its church leadership. The findings revealed the emic view that I classify in two key themes of “People” as Scripture resources and “Ministry” Scripture resources.

The data collected is used to develop a change strategy together with Budu leadership to enable Budu believers encounter God’s Word in life–transforming ways using context–appropriate Scripture resources. My recommendations call for two important changes: (1) altering our comprehension of what constitutes a Scripture resource; (2) using this knowledge to enable Budu believers complete God’s story in a way that it becomes “readable” through the messengers individually and communally and communicated through appropriated means of communication. I specifically address the issue of leaders as promoters of transformation in the largely but not only communal and oral context of African believers. As these leaders find their place within God’s story, and become “living Scripture resources”, credible conveyers of the Word of God, they will be able to lead others towards life–transforming engagement with Scripture.

"Clear, simple and readable - very practical, fully supported with further reading ... exactly the kind of thing that is needed."
Chris Wright, Langham Partnership

A tried and tested resource that encourages meaningful Bible use in multi-lingual contexts through both written and oral media.

Individual chapters can be used as a standalone interactive workshop in church or mission contexts. Chapters (with further reading) are also appropriate as a text for graduate studies. Includes activities, assignments, further reading resources and links for useful websites.

Bible Society in New Zealand has made a series of 'True Story' videos to show people how "life's answers may be closer than you think".

"These videos are for anyone who has ever been afraid, alone, heartbroken or confused. They're for anyone who has ever been bullied, judged, or seriously mistreated, and for anyone who has ever been tempted or made a really big mistake they can't take back.

"These stories are all true - captured for the whole world to learn from. Our hope is that if you’ve ever felt like the people in these stories, you’ll be encouraged by them."

There are seven videos: Alone, Judged, Regret, Bullied, Afraid, Heartbroken, Tempted. Each video is accompanied with a link to a PDF download of the relevant Bible story. [more...]

"Those under 20 are ‘digital natives’ — fearless and proficient in manipulating the media with understanding of it structure and potential. It is these young people we must harness to help Christians be salt and light on the internet social networking sites."

One person can only shake hands with about 25 people in 15 seconds - but if they all keep shaking hands with others, a whole room of 250 people can be reached in 15 secs. Such is the nature of viral videos!

Roy Meredith (Logosdor, Australia) tells us about 'R U Smarter than a Fly?' - a 5 part video narrative about the birth, life and death of Jesus as seen through the eyes of flies. He discusses the idea of viral videos and how Scripture engagement needs to take place where young people are online (e.g. social networking sites). [more...]

"Most of our Scripture Engagement tools are geared toward teens who are relatively open to the Scriptures though perhaps struggle to see the relevance. But what about the antagonistic atheists and seculars who favour naturalistic science over the implausible supernatural; the untrusting skeptics and agnostics who find the historical and moral assertions in the Bible literally in-credible; or the confused seekers and New Agers who want meaning to their life but are suspicious of any (religious) truth claims—no matter how seemingly relevant—lest they be duped and lose their “freedom”?"

Encountering God’s Word has the potential to transform teens outside the church. But what if their attitude to the Bible closes their ears? How can we open ears, establish trust, and arouse interest? Sometimes we need to talk about the Bible before we can invite teens to read it. These resources unpack a pre-evangelistic conversational strategy that challenges, informs, and inspires teens to see the Bible as plausible, credible, and relevant.

Dave Benson has researched the area and is actively using the model he presents here in Australian schools. Attached here is the booklet and presentation he produced for the World Wide Scripture Engagement Consultation 2009 - and a copy of his thesis 'The Thinking Teen'. [more...]

WordLive is for people who want to meet with God in fresh ways and to engage with the Bible. WordLive is created and maintained by Scripture Union. At the heart of what we do is to try to present the Bible in inspiring and accessible ways.

WordLive is a daily multimedia Bible experience with both audio and text of the passage, meditations, worship songs and prayer.

It is available online, by email, RSS feed, podcast or on your mobile phone. [more...]